Analogy

I was speaking a lot the other day. For some reason, I was a bit high, may be standing at the roadside tea stall early-early morning without sleep was too exciting, and the victim was a poor (not literally) guy who was selling small artifacts in the Galleria around Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar. Though it didn't hurt him, and I was also doing a cinch blabber, it occurred to me that I should have spoken a bit lesser. May be the guy got bored. May be he misunderstood my words to some grief. May be it was 1.30 in the morning and I hijacked the last hours of his business (I bought some not very useful items in the end in bulk from him though :)). This brings me to a very interesting analogy.

Words are like arrows

I am not sure if this is a known analogy, but I am pretty sure Bollywooders have had the pie.

The analogy builds as-

i. There are limited arrows a warrior has. Using them wisely is very important. We have limited words, limited time here and limited energy to speak, using it wisely is important.

ii. An arrow hitting the right person, at the right spot is worth its price. A word, spoken to the right person, in the right way, reaching him in the intended sense is worth spoken.

iii. An arrow hitting the wrong person, makes you a murderer. A (wrong) word, reaching a wrong person can disrupt listener's calm.

iv. An arrow leaving the bow cannot come back, so will not a word out of the mouth.

v. Nobody nailed by you will forget you. Nobody ill-spoken to will ever forgive you.

Human mind, speaking loosely, is a paint blob. An impression on it is easy to make, persists for long, and also leaves a mark on you. Some souls, that are above this human instinct, are true Gods - Nirvair.

-G Singh, 1:25 PM, Nov 14, 2008, New Delhi